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Robbie should move away, far far away.
perhaps he should buy his own island where he could crown himself king, he could totally buy Haiti, clean it up and make it just the way he wants.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 10:00 am

Your day is coming.

tra

April 7, 2011 at 10:02 am

With this action, Arkley is vouching for the importance of the Herald.

Nowadays, the old saying about “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” has a correlation: “investigation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

So, congratulations!

Goldie

April 7, 2011 at 10:05 am

The letter refers to the Arkley’s, I mean Kay Baker’s, understanding of the desires of the masses so why should the masses not have a look at the letter?

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 10:07 am

This is a tactic the right is using more and more. He didn’t think it up on his own, but he’ll use any dirty trick available to stop his critics. Btw, Walker’s FOI request for that liberal professors e-mails came up with nothing. Here’s to hoping that county workers are as diligent about keeping their political e-mails off their county e-mail server as the good Wisconsin professor was.

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 10:10 am

Someone providing Heraldo wasn’t illegal, per se, Goldie. But it is illegal to use govt. resources for political purposes and Arkley is hoping to get someone fired or removed from office for violations. He is also, no doubt, hoping to identify Heraldo and / or other posters who use pseudonyms so he can retaliate.

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 10:12 am

What a morning. That should have said ..Heraldo *copies of the letters…

anonymous04

April 7, 2011 at 10:15 am

I hope someone will file one of these for Virginia Bass soon. Meanwhile, anyone out there want to tell us more of why Rob’s just a local businessman trying to “create jobs” and that everyone should quite treating him like he’s a political operative?

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 10:22 am

I think Heraldo’s stock just went up again. :D

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 10:24 am

Stop the presses! Someone ‘leaked’ a public document!

Or did it go something like this?:

“I heard that there was a crazy letter by HELP again. Can you forward it to me?”

“Sure, whats your email?”

Goldie

April 7, 2011 at 10:26 am

Thanks Jane.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 10:32 am

I’d like to see the email chain between Arkley, Gans and Mitchell and the Humboldt Mirror

High Finance

April 7, 2011 at 10:32 am

Hope Heraldo has good liability insurance !

backfire

April 7, 2011 at 10:33 am

ALL county e-mails with HELP in subject line could reveal some interesting things. Bass is probably cleaning up her mailbox right now.

backfire

April 7, 2011 at 10:34 am

liability insurance for what, HF?

Ed

April 7, 2011 at 10:44 am

What if the letters weren’t leaked from the County? How happy is the crew on the USS Arkley?

Mitch

April 7, 2011 at 10:53 am

I hope Security National is prepared to buy an awful lot of emails with subjects like “help: how do I make spell check work?”

Jane’s right — the right wing hit the jackpot with so-called Climategate, even though there was no there there, and it will be fishing for email for the next decade.

The thing is, no matter how modest the crop of wrongdoing the email collection yields, the shoppers can take an unguarded, irritated comment as mild as “the guy’s a nag” and turn it into a publicity storm.

That delegitimizes the author of the offending memo, forces them to waste time fighting to clear their name, and when their name does get cleared the media will give it 5% of the space of the initial smear.

But folks are right, this is definitely further recognition of the importance of the site Heraldo built. Do they even care about letters sent to the T-S or NCJ?

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 11:01 am

I’ll bet there’s a few out there who are dissed they didn’t make the list.

There was a reward offered by someone a few years ago, don’t know if it’s still valid, Joe.

It’s weird to think of a blogger with a price on their head. What is this country coming to?

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 11:15 am

I’m hoping some e-mails show up from one of Arkley’s county puppets that reveal improprieties between the writer and HELP. That would be poetic justice.

Curley

April 7, 2011 at 11:17 am

Actually most if not all government agencies have to cache e-mails for at least five years to be able to comply with public records requests. These requests come from all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons and merely deleting them from your PC doesn’t erase the cache subject to the public records request. Generally most or all public employees understand that and would probably not expose themselves to too much liability on the work e-mails.

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 11:24 am

I agree, Curly. It’s more about intimidation, I think, than any real expectation he is going to find anything incriminating.

Bolithio

April 7, 2011 at 11:30 am

Generally most or all public employees understand that and would probably not expose themselves to too much liability on the work e-mails.

I wonder. Sort of like your teenage sons browser history. “I thought I deleted all those porn hits!” I can see many public employees not really understanding how a cache works. Or believing if they log on to a external email they are not tracked.

lurch

April 7, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Surely fuller examination of the addresses will make it clear that Arkley’s after three entities here: Lovelace, Heraldo, and Healthy Humboldt.

This is the natural result of outfits like Security National (and the rest of the local efflorescence of the right wing) drinking their own Kool-aid.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Something about glass houses…

What about a similar request to Eureka City Council, City Manager and staff for emails with the tags: Chamber of Commerce, Jefferson School, or Marina Center.

Not A Native

April 7, 2011 at 12:57 pm

Perhaps what’s being suggested is the need for a patriotic ordinance requiring every county employee to sign a loyalty oath to Rob Arkley.

Except for a few frivolous and inconsequential lawsuits, a similar informal requirement has been quite effective in maintaining the (old) order in the city of Eureka.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 1:16 pm

I believe HSU gets around the e-mail record issue by instructing staff to routinely delete e-mails older than a set period of months (less than a year).

The CSU is developing a records retention policy. Direction was received to retain e-mail records no longer than six weeks.

You can’t furnish public records if, oops, you deleted them. What is HSU’s policy?

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 1:30 pm

Maybe that’s just off the individual employees’ computers and they are maintained in another system to comply with the law.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 1:54 pm

What possible reason could the CSU have for restricting how long employees keep e-mail on their office computers? That’s precisely where it helps (from an employee’s work perspective) to have email kept the longest.

Sure, the CSU should have a central method of archiving e-mail for public records requests, but why mess with individual recording keeping by employees? Fishy.

Bump

April 7, 2011 at 1:57 pm

Here is another ‘HELP’ CA Public Information request to Headwaters in 2009, submitted by Kay Backer.

Wouldn’t it be fair if all parties requesting information under the FOI have to disclose who they actually are? “a group of private volunteer citizens” with a paid spokesperson doesn’t identify them.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 2:09 pm

Since the Eureka Chamber of Commerce is publicly funded entity, can a citizen request email records between this group and SN, Humboldt Sunshine, etc?

Reality Check

April 7, 2011 at 2:13 pm

I will do a little research on what it takes to make a request, because I like what is being suggested by anonymous-let’s show the links between the chamber, SN, Humboldt Sunshine, RA, HUM CPR.
I’ll post info as soon as I have it.

ChumBolly

April 7, 2011 at 2:19 pm

Ask Mike Huckabee how to completely destroy any electronic trail of information. Ol’ Huck made sure no one would ever see what his administration had done because he had all the records, including the computers they were supposed to be stored on, destroyed.

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 2:24 pm

You just reminded me of Sheriff Renner and his financial records, ChumBolly.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 2:46 pm

I expect nonprofits must address FOIA with regard to projects that receive public funding. If a nonprofit receives city money, but the money isn’t allocated to a specific project, that might mean a simple FOIA request ends up casting a very wide net.

His generosity knows no bounds,
making it increasingly difficult
for us to smear him.

Suggest new organization to spread disinformation.

“RS” — send letters to Journal ASAP; use new code name to avoid detection.

Corncob — coordinate with Moscow

Baykeeper — use dioxin template 327 to raise fear amongst populace

H — continue successful efforts at recruiting useful idiots

I will be interfacing with Natasha,
deconstructing useful paradigms
for moving Noah’s ship’s cheese
and obtaining mission critical optimizations.

In solidarity,
Planning

Plain Jane

April 7, 2011 at 4:44 pm

Brilliant, Mitch! Arkley will add those words to his request now! We’re SCREWED!!!

Mitch

April 7, 2011 at 4:46 pm

Sorry, PJ. I feel like the proverbial loose lips.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 4:49 pm

Did anyone see Rachel Maddow’s program last night? She is being desperately sought by one of the rich right-winger Koch Brothers and a group of his powerful and greedy friends. They want to know which University of Michigan employees have been watching the Rachel Maddow show.

The uber-rich are no longer even making a pretense of fairness in the realm of economy or politics. They aim to get us into a choke hold and keep on applying pressure.

Not A Native

April 7, 2011 at 4:52 pm

The California Public Records Act applies only to government records held by state and local agencies. Records of entities that contract with the government aren’t public and aren’t subject to disclosure under the act.

In support of a civil lawsuit, private documents can be obtained by parties through the procedure of discovery. But only for the purpose of the lawsuit, not for public dissemination.

Bump

April 7, 2011 at 5:40 pm

Well Heraldo, if you want to know some of you new found enemies…

Google this: [“Closing-Remarks-for-Real-Estate-Project” +HELP]

…and review the H-E-L-P powerpoint presentation, and its pitch from 3 attorneys on how to seek and obtain county entitlements, of which the general plan qualifies as.

Ben

April 7, 2011 at 5:49 pm

I find this thread interesting because this blog is over the top in its dislike for Arkley, and then just has a fit when their cover may be blown. You play the game and it might hurt.

backfire

April 7, 2011 at 5:59 pm

2:09 asked: “Since the Eureka Chamber of Commerce is publicly funded entity, can a citizen request email records between this group and SN, Humboldt Sunshine, etc?”

Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 6:43 pm

Anyone interested in making a public records request for Virginia Bass, Ryan Sundberg and others via security national emails, humbugs, and other right-wing institutions in Humboldt?

Bump

April 7, 2011 at 6:47 pm

Ben, whats more interesting, is that they want 4% development rates instead the current 2%, and numerous of them are involved financially in some stage of the land development process. They want to turn the market around for themselves.

HELP’s 2006 letter to the BOS argues that the county does not need a redevelopment plan because all they need to do is cooperate with the private sector.

Big Al, If I could find the link, I’d probably quote that back to you.

Grouchy

April 7, 2011 at 6:52 pm

Does anyone know what happened to Kay Backer? She hasn’t been at the last several GPU hearings at the planning commission, and apparently the HELP website has been abandoned. Those letters supposedly from her to the Supes were clearly not her style. Whatever else she may be, she is always very professional and would never leave “important points” out of her letter, let alone write in such a superficial and not very grammatical style. The signature, of course, is obviously computer-generated, but that doesn’t seem as much of a telltale sign as the clumsy way, un-KB way the letters are written.

I don’t know much about the Public Records Act and even less about data storage issues, but — seems to me that if any correspondence with a public official (elected, appointed, staff) is part of the public record, that would include letters to the CAO requesting records under the PRA. So — full disclosure IS a two-way street.

As for anonymity, it’s a double edged sword. Of course it can protect the dissident citizen, but then on the other hand, since you don’t know who’s saying what, “Anonymous” (anyone using that handle; I’m not referring to any “Anonymous” in particular but to ALL of them) could be a spy or agent provocateur, yes? I tend to discredit Anonymouses (Anonymi?) for that reason.

Of course, you don’t know who “Grouchy” is, either. But if “Grouchy” continues to post on this blog, you can follow “Grouchy’s” comments and discern many things about this individual. ANd we know there’s only one “Grouchy” because the name is anchored to an email address there at blog central. Of course, “Grouchy” could write under more than one name, could be “Happy” or “Sneezy” or “Kay Backer” next time. But at least there’s SOME kind of identity.

These blog names seem like a middle ground between revealing your true identity and gutlessly going by “Anonymous.”

backfire

April 7, 2011 at 7:08 pm

“Grouchy” because the name is anchored to an email address there at blog central…

Not quite. Anonymous blogs entries are entered online through your browser. Most IPs randomize your IP address, so as to protect your privacy. You don’t blog through your e-mail. E-mails can be easily tracked.

anhysbys

April 7, 2011 at 7:19 pm

We should all use a name like Grouchy. That way we won’t be going about gutlessly.

I can out Heraldo…..but it will cost. Give me a call. And yes, I can deliver.

Andrew Bird

April 7, 2011 at 8:07 pm

I don’t get why people think this is an attempt to learn the identity of Heraldo or any anonymous poster. First, the Backer/Arkley letters sent to the BOS are public documents, so “leaking” them to Heraldo or anybody else is innocuous from a legal standpoint. Reporters probably get copies of all letters to the board in their meeting packets.

This appears to me to be a fishing expedition; Arkely looking for something he can use to cause political damage. In the 2006 Eureka City Council race, Arkley had his lawyers make the same request of the City for the emails of Mayor Peter LaVallee and Councilmember Chris Kerrigan. I managed Peter’s campaign and my email address was one of those listed in the request. They found nothing.

Anonymous

April 7, 2011 at 8:08 pm

Hey Richard, how about I pick up your buffet tab at King’s Table? And I can get you to the front of the line each time you return.

Richard has the goods! And he’s keeping it from Matt Owen in hopes of a big pay off?

Sweet.

Inquiring minds

April 7, 2011 at 9:15 pm

Apparently soliciting is welcome at the Marks residence

No license, so problem

Ed

April 7, 2011 at 9:19 pm

This attempt at punishment by Arkley is aimed at those who recognize his kind of business for what it is, these days it’s called disaster capitalism, in the aftermath of the civil war, when whole regions suffered economic collapse, it was called carpetbagging. When you prosper from others’ hardship, expect some scrutiny, expect some outrage. This is what happens when you evict the widow for non payment of rent and tie her to the railroad tract.

Funny that you think a judge ordering the release of the identity of a person posting on a newspaper site that they were a witness to a fatal accident which resulted in criminal charges is relevant to identifying people who post their opinions a political blog.

It will take many times to the buffett for me to do this. I have talked to many of the local “bloggers” about outing Heraldo and surprisingly there are people who do not want to know and like the hidden identity factor. But yes, I can out THEM.

MUROW:We will not walk in fear, one of another. Wewill not be driven by fear into an age of unreason;ifwe dig deep in our history and our doctrine.,and remember that we are not descended from fearful men , not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and
to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”And soo goodnight

Also–We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty==
Edwin R Murrow

Plain Jane

April 8, 2011 at 9:39 am

Great way to keep friends, Richard. Anyone who trusts you with any information is a fool.

Mitch

April 8, 2011 at 9:57 am

All this speculation is pathetic.

It’s been obvious to me for years that Heraldo is Rob Arkley.

A wealthy man gets bored without critics, so Rob invented the Heraldo persona to keep things interesting. By keeping his employees from knowing that Heraldo is really Rob, he’s able to find out which of them are loyal and which are not.

As always, you’re welcome.

Mitch

April 8, 2011 at 10:00 am

And High Finance is obviously a pseudonym for Glen Beck. Remember the HAL 9000 in 2001? I->H, B->A, M->L? Well H->G F->B! OK, so I’m only halfway there.

Plain Jane: If you think my friends are a bunch of blog trolls or into politics, you are sadly mistaken. I hold no Allegiance to this blog or to the haters that control it.

Plain Jane

April 8, 2011 at 10:32 am

I doubt you have any allegiance to anything given your public track record, Richard. You are a vile, self-centered, loathsome character for sale to the highest bidder. There’s a name for people like you, but I’m trying to keep it polite.

“Heraldo became self-aware at 2:14 am Eastern Time on August 29th, 2011. We tried to shut it down, but it was too late, by then it was hooked into everything…but there was one man, one man who taught us how to fight…”

Mitch

April 8, 2011 at 10:44 am

Arnold Schwarzenegger?!

Mayor Snorkum

April 8, 2011 at 11:13 am

Anyone can “out” someone, saying “so-and-so” is Heraldo, or HiFi, or PJ or whoever. For it to be meaningful, or believable, one needs indisputable public proof, hard evidence that will be made public.

So, Richard, you don’t have to tell us who Heraldo is — but what is the nature of your proof (traceable e-mails? confessions to the priest?) You could tell us that in general terms without giving anything away — otherwise it’s just blowing smoke.

Mayor Snorkum

April 8, 2011 at 11:17 am

And just because the majority of posters on this site don’t like Mr. Arkley, his philosophy, and what he stands for, it doesn’t make them “haters”.

Plain Jane

April 8, 2011 at 11:21 am

Richard has been trying, in vain, to find out who Heraldo is; but other bloggers who may or may not know, have indicated to him that they don’t care so he is threatening to out those who MIGHT know but won’t tell. He’s lower than slime mold.

JJ

April 8, 2011 at 11:23 am

Frankly, I don’t care who Heraldo is, or his bias. I like the lively discussions. Heraldo barely comments. He basically just proposes a topic of discussion. Does it really matter who proposes the topic? I haven’t really seen confidential top secret stuff on here. Most of it is from the news.

I am curious what grounds Arkley can demand email records for all those organizations though. Really? green wheels? democracy unlimited? California Native Plant Society?!? Are we to truly believe these organizations are privately conspiring against Arkley’s visions? The way I see it, they are publicly and openly against many of his visions. Come on Arkley join the public debate. How does more retail really help the local economy? More service sector jobs? Where are we going to get the money to shop there?

M

April 8, 2011 at 11:34 am

Obviously the solution is that county or government sources should NEVER use their county e-mail or county computers to submit stuff to Heraldo, or any other blog. Such e-mails can possibly be requested via Public Records Act.

If you have access to sensitive documents, put them on your flash drive, or otherwise copy them, then send them from some other non-county/non-government computer, making sure that you do not use county/government e-mail.

It takes a much bigger subpoena to get that sort of info.

Anonymous

April 8, 2011 at 11:39 am

Whenever someone finds it important to attack the messenger or even find out who that entity is it sends off my BULLSHIT meter all the way to the highest level. It means that they have no facts or relevant argument to counter the facts or opinions of the messenger. Who the person(s) is is collateral information of no relevance to the issues at hand. The only reason one would need to know who an anonymous poster is would be to harm the poster somehow or assist others to do it. Just a thought.

Mayor Snorkum

April 8, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Perhaps another reason is that if the blogger is outed, then their views can be discounted or trivialized. “Oh, Heraldo’s so-and-so, what can you expect. He’s just one of those environmental extremists, a special interest. No one should pay attention to him.” You get the drift.

Goldie

April 8, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Nah, Heraldo IS Heraldo. Somewhere between today and 2006 is when it happened.

Anonymous

April 8, 2011 at 12:45 pm

I already know who Heraldo is. It’s Mark Konkler. He told me in person that he worked on setting up this blog.

Lodgepole

April 8, 2011 at 1:21 pm

D’oh!

mresquan

April 8, 2011 at 1:25 pm

“I already know who Heraldo is. It’s Mark Konkler. He told me in person that he worked on setting up this blog.”

Nailed it!!But you screwed Richard out of receiving a nice check.

Plain Jane

April 8, 2011 at 1:49 pm

I KNEW IT! Mark and Kristabel are trying to corner the blog market and create a monopoly.

skippy

April 8, 2011 at 2:32 pm

Who cares who he is? Yours truly likes the ‘Y’ in a good mystery. This is like ripping the last ten pages out of a gripping whodunnit story before passing it on.

Or, more like the spiteful relative delighting in bursting the bubble, saying to the child, “NO, Virginia, there really was NO Santa Claus.”

This site will continue standing on its merit and value–regardless of the temerity of others.

He can not get e-mail records of the organizations. He asked for e-mails sent from county computers TO those organizations. He can do this because the Public Records Act makes (mostly) all government communications and documents available to the public. If they ask. And pay.

Arkley wants to associate Lovelace with “special interest groups”. He thinks communication between an elected official and a “special interest group” is wrong and should be exposed. Didn’t someone earlier mention glass houses?

Anyone can request information using the Public Records Act. Let’s see the e-mails from county and city officials to Arkley’s special interest groups, their staff and volunteers.

Plain Jane

April 8, 2011 at 3:14 pm

If it turns out that someone working for the county, either as an employee or elected official, e-mailed political materials or received them on their government e-mail, there can be negative consequences for the government employee. I will be very surprised if this witch hunt turns up anything since most government employees know the rules and don’t want their non-work e-mails cached and available for snoopers and alternative free e-mails are readily available, even to government employees.

PJ, what would be considered political material? If the letters were submitted to the BOS for consideration at a meeting, they are automatically in the public record and available online along with agendas. Is it considered inappropriate for an elected official to send someone that kind of material, which was already made available to the public? I’m curious, please clarify.

Anonymous

April 8, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Mark Konkler told me in person that he was responsible for starting this blog. Konkler is Heraldo.

Mr. Arkley

April 8, 2011 at 5:25 pm

You fools! I started this blog.

How else would I drum up enough sympathy for my Marina Center project and get enough people to hate progressives enough to vote in my two left testicles: Left nut Brady and right nut Newman.

Just saw your question, 3:49. I didn’t phrase that very well. It is illegal for government employees to use their government e-mails for political activities. Distributing copies of letters, no matter how unconfidential they are, for your personal political purposes is illegal; and really dumb too since, as you can see, your private correspondence can become public correspondence.

Plain Jane

April 8, 2011 at 8:38 pm

Of course, it is also illegal for government employees to use private e-mails for government business, for obvious reasons.

Anonymous

April 8, 2011 at 8:48 pm

love the string between 8pm and 834. priceless. well done anon, mb and md! didn’t get the belly laugh like this weeks seven-oh-heaven, but was brilliant in its own right.

eurekite

April 8, 2011 at 9:54 pm

Wow, look at this small town bullshit.

osprey

April 9, 2011 at 5:03 am

Arkley and Marks are a couple of colossal douche bags. Maybe Rob should focus on keeping his workers around. jeez….what a loser.

FoxStudio

April 9, 2011 at 12:38 pm

Whoever used the word “intimidation” at the top of this thread echoed my exact thought when I read the post. I really hope someone here who knows how to go about it turns the tables and files PRA requests to find out about Arkley’s behind the scenes activities with local government. I would guess that there’s some ugly, ugly stuff that needs to be dragged out, blinking, into the light.

Rose, I think you would be a happier person if you got some new hobbies

Sinclair Lewis

April 12, 2011 at 9:37 pm

I am not Heraldo. I am Sparticus.

skippy

April 13, 2011 at 10:09 am

“Last week I found myself in receipt of a Public Records Act request by Shirley Fuller, assistant to Eureka kazillionaire Rob Arkley, and I was instantly gladdened…”

This widening story written by Hank Sims is contained in today’s Times-Standard’s Guest Column: “Lost Coast Outpost: the Fuller Picture.”

No link is available to the T-S or the Lost Coast Outpost yet for Mr. Sims’ smart and proprietary piece.

There’s much more. If you’d like to read and know more by Mr. Sim’s informative work, one has to do it the old-fashioned way: buying today’s newspaper and seeing for yourself. Fair enough. Thank you for covering this, Mr. Sims.

When R Novak outted V Phlame as a covert agent @CIA Rove&Scooter Libby started losing emails. Of course in the pursuit of justice a good data forensics expert could retrieve deleted data. Right wingers have to play a good offense. And they were so busy@the Office of Special Plans what with the wars and all. So much money and so little time!